


Quid pro quo

by Anonymous



Category: Mass Effect: Andromeda
Genre: Anal Fingering, Blow Jobs, Espionage, Friends With Benefits To Lovers, Frottage, M/M, Pining, Secrets
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-13
Updated: 2021-03-13
Packaged: 2021-03-16 17:13:56
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 12,467
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29085933
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: For Reyes, distance very much made the heart grow fonder.And it was unfortunate, because it would be so much easier to do his job, if Reyes weren't so busy working double-time, pretending to Evfra that he really was just some third-rate smuggler, pretending he was trading intelligence and resources in a way that wasn't ultimately bad for business, pretending that he was pretending to care.
Relationships: Evfra de Tershaav/Reyes Vidal
Kudos: 3
Collections: Five Figure Fanwork Exchange 2020





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [smaragdbird](https://archiveofourown.org/users/smaragdbird/gifts).



"So you want all this on Havarl?" asked Reyes, looking at the shipping manifest. "I am making other stops along the way, just so you know."

"I'm done with it," said Eridia. In her focus, she had hunched over a machine, paying little attention to Reyes.

He took a quick peek around. Lots of nice things Eridia had here, and not all Remnant. Takeable. If she weren't asari, he'd try and lift something, but his sleight of hand wasn't quicker than asari perception. Such a shame.

"What about that over there?" he asked. The container in the corner, hooked up to three other monitoring devices, was closed. At the size of a shoebox, it was smaller than the others, and there was a strange hum coming from it. (Was it bees? He wouldn't put it past Eridia.)

Eridia didn't even look up from her machine display. "Not done with that one yet," she said. "Don't touch it. It's not hirsyn, if you were wondering."

"What?"

"Those humming, stinging bugs from Elaadan you humans keep calling bees."

"Well, whatever it is, it's making my omni-tool very angry," said Reyes.

Reyes' omni-tool had a few other less-than-legal apps downloaded, for his own benefit and for Collective use. One of these was a clever scanning and analysis program Crux had written to interpret angaran bioelectric signals and turn them into information you could read. According to it, the container contained approximately a hundred angara who were various moods of enraged, isolated, mournful, and frantic all at once. Exhausting.

And yet, utterly fascinating. Whatever the data it held was, that container was definitely angaran make. Good thing Eridia wasn't looking at him, or she'd slap his outstretched hand away.

"So don't stand so close to it." Eridia sat back and shook her head to relieve her eyes. She tapped on the side of the machine and out popped out a data core, which she put into a holder. This she secured again in another container and locked it. "Okay, last bit for Havarl. Put this under Remnant-unidentified. There's an asari at Pelaav who's good at cracking things open, so let's see what she makes of it."

"Are you sure you shouldn't be giving it to the sages?" asked Reyes.

Eridia scowled. "Please. What would they know about this stuff?"

"The code looked patently angaran," he replied. In a softer mutter, he added, "And if what you've been messing around with is the equivalent of their Rosetta stone -"

" _A-ha!_ " burst out Eridia. She slammed the desk to emphasise it. "Then you admit it!"

Reyes held his hands up in defence. "I admit nothing!" he said. "What have I done?" He hadn't even touched the angry box! (He'd thought about it. But he hadn't!)

"You think I didn't notice the contents don't always make it to their destination? You must be changing the manifest en-route! Well, I started tagging everything in those crates. That tech was supposed to get to Dr T'Reve in one piece, and only half of it got there. The rest winds up somewhere else!"

"Really," said Reyes in a purr that tended to work on asari, "dear Varena, was that so necessary? I do appreciate an amount of trust between me and my clientele."

"I knew you'd reduced your normally exorbitant fees for me," said Eridia, rounding on him, "but I never thought this was why. You're always making these mystery stops. And now I know it's Aya. So - what, you're just giving my stuff to the angara? Well, where's the credits from that? Goddess knows they don't even buy it!"

Because it's not really yours to sell, thought Reyes. "The museum on Aya staffs some talented researchers," he said. "Your research would progress more quickly. Granted, I did tell them to deliver whatever wasn't useful to your asari contact -"

"I'm doing fine on my own," snapped Eridia. She wasn't, and that was why this crate was being offloaded to Havarl for credits.

"I didn't want it to have to come to this," muttered Reyes, shaking his head. "But - the Charlatan of Kadara intervened. You understand. They said these items belong to the angara, and that it's right they return to them."

Eridia rolled her eyes in a grand gesture with all the maudlin drama of Umi drunk. "Ohhh, the _Charlatan_ says! _Well,_ then! That changes _everything_ , doesn't it! Look, just because that angara-loving asshole fancies themselves king of Kadara or whatever doesn't make them the king of the cluster." (No, but give Reyes a decade.) "And this tech is Remnant, not angaran. There's a difference. The Jardaan made it for anyone." Eridia shoved her thumb into her chest. " _I'm_ anyone!"

Reyes pointed to the emotional box of not-angara in the corner. "That holo display is clearly made for an angaran hand," he explained.

"It could be biotic too!"

Oh? Were her last three fingers fused? "It's not, or you would have figured out how to work it by now, instead of blasting it full on and hoping to understand some signal," said Reyes. He glared. Eridia had worked with Outcast before she worked with Collective, and she never had seemed too happy about the changeover. This wasn't helping that. "You're draining whatever power source it has. It's depreciating in value by the joule. I am _trying_ to help you do business, Varena -"

"Like I give a shit!" Eridia shoved his datapad with the uploaded manifest back at him. "So much for you being a 'free agent'. Don't bother coming back, Vidal."

"Fine!" said Reyes. "I'll send someone else by!"

" _Not_ Collective!" said Eridia.

"I think you'll find," replied Reyes evenly, "the delivery service in Heleus is becoming remarkably monopolic."

"I'll _make do_. Now get out of my lab and if you even _think_ about filching my equipment -"

And that was how Reyes got himself kicked out of Dr Varena Eridia's Sheartop lab on Eos.

Just for that, Reyes thought he would take the long road to Havarl - return to Kadara first, then around the cluster a little on a joyride. He'd think about stopping on Havarl maybe in a week or two, when he had enough deliveries going there already. Besides, it wasn't like tech would spoil.

* * *

A few days later, Keema radioed him in the base. " _We've got a problem, I thought you might want to deal with it,_ " she said.

"Oh, yes, I love dealing with problems," Reyes replied flatly. He looked down at his work. "Can it wait? I'm busy with the mushrooms."

" _Save that for Tirix. No one needs poisoning right now. Swing by the Port - there's a problem at the docks. Another code 9-star-7-4. And - Reyes? Charlatan's orders, so do it."_

"Some idiot Nexus won't give up their guns?" Reyes asked. "And Dalton can't handle that on his lonesome?"

" _You'll see when you get there. Keema out._ "

Draullir to Kadara Port took him fifteen minutes in the shuttle, and it was a lovely ride with the sun out of his eyes, so Reyes considered himself in one of his better moods when he landed to find Colt Dalton arguing with two angara, one massive and blue, the other shorter and pink.

Then the blue angara turned around, and Reyes could have laughed.

To Reyes' knowledge, Evfra de Tershaav had never actually been to Kadara, not since the Nexus had arrived nearly two years ago and promptly made a shittier situation worse. If Evfra had been in his youth (did a man like Evfra have a youth, or had he sprung fully-formed from a sea of spite), then he didn't act like he did. Reyes was courteous, but Evfra rebuffed all invitations. Reyes assumed it was the smell. If the atmospheric sulfur weren't bad enough, there were so many aliens now; a port city stank without the detail of so many different species in such close quarters, so few of them angara. That must offend Evfra something fierce.

Yet here he was, in all his irate glory.

Reyes had rarely seen Evfra in person. The first time he'd reached out to make contact, and adopted the name Shena, it was on a run that had taken him to Voeld, where he met a Resistance cell of three women. It was only with their help that he'd been able to make vidcall contact with Aya at all, using one of the women's names as a pseudonym, with her at his side, his hands in the air, her weapon at his throat to show he meant no harm and he wasn't a threat. The angara who had answered was _not_ happy to see an alien.

Reyes' omni-tool was always running, collecting data surreptitiously. You never knew what could be useful. In his shuttle, on the long trek back to Kadara, he'd run a script to replay that captured footage and studied what he could. The technology wasn't great and only ever sent a portion of the video signal to reconstruct a holographic projection. Vidcalls on Kadara were too public for Resistance work and had thereafter dwindled in favour of emails, which were more easily encrypted. And Evfra was too busy for real-time calls, anyway.

Reyes had kept a copy of that first vidcall for forgery purposes only. All angara had beautiful voices; Evfra was no different. His projection had looked like any other ordinary angara.

Nothing about that had changed until Meridian, where they had technically met. Evfra had ignored him, preferring to stand by the Moshae as they waited for the Pathfinder. Evfra either didn't recognise that this was Shena in the flesh, or he didn't care.

Reyes, meanwhile, had snuck peeks at Evfra every time he could without getting caught, and it still wasn't enough. He'd thought to himself, _I see why people would die for you._ The saved vidcall footage had a lot more plays after Meridian.

Evfra was _nothing_ like ordinary and Reyes had been a fool to think it. He had an angular jaw and delicate lips, in a face framed by soft-looking smooth khartja - the lobes of flesh that extended from beneath the cap on the crown of the skull at the temples, and which connected like a mantle along the sides of the neck to disappear beneath the rofjinn. His eyes were larger in life than they'd been over projection, but narrower than most angara Reyes had met. Doubly as intense as a result. Black as night, speckled with brilliant blue, the same shade as his skin. He wore a thin white shirt under his rofjinn and chest armour, and it made his massive shoulders look touchably round. He had a broad, flat nose, and high cheekbones, somewhat gaunt, which gave him a fey look.

He'd collected a fair few scars, and one was a deep line tracing from the right side of his crown, past his eye, to his chin. Reyes had seen his share of scarred angara, but Evfra held his so fiercely, with defiance and authority, even as it carved up his face. _Fuck you,_ it said. Reyes badly wanted to.

Evfra grimaced and his nostrils wrinkled as he sneered. "Vault or no vault, it still stinks on this planet," he said. Ah, that voice. Like velvet.

"If I'd known you were coming," said Reyes, "I'd have brought you flowers." He put in a call to Keema via his omni-tool. Keema didn't pick up. Ignoring him _,_ he thought. Was this a joke to her? Knowing Keema... yes.

"Yeah, this - gentleman?" spat Colt Dalton, in a tone of voice that said he didn't think much of Evfra's manners. "Won't give up his weapons."

"That's the leader of the Resistance," said the little pink angara beside him. She was young and female and very bold to talk back to Dalton like that. Dalton made no sign of hiding his own sidearm.

"No weapons in Kadara Port," Dalton said. "Your protection as well as others'. You can have them back in the slums."

"Evfra won't be going to the slums," said Reyes. He leaned in, lowering his voice conspiratorially. "You won't, will you?"

Evfra glared.

"I only ask because it smells far worse," said Reyes. "There are better places to be, a man of your ..." He took his time to look Evfra up and down as lasciviously as he liked, which was a lot. Evfra's expression was tolerant with rapidly thinning patience. "Calibre," he finished.

"Evfra, do you _know_ this alien?" asked the young pink angara.

"Unfortunately," drawled Evfra.

"See?" said Reyes. "You don't need weapons, you wound me with only a word." Meanwhile, his call had finally connected. "Keema," he said, "I suppose you think you are very funny."

Evfra looked at Reyes' omni-tool, transmitting Keema's audio, then up at the port doors where two cameras had swiveled to look at them. He spoke directly into the cameras. "Keema Dohrgun," he boomed, "get over here, I've someone you need to meet. I'm not asking - I'm telling."

" _Oh, is that Evfra I hear? What a pleasant surprise,_ " came Keema's voice. Yes. Surprise. " _He knows the rules. He wants in, it's no guns in the Port._ "

Evfra was unfazed. "Stop sending aliens to do your work, this is angara business."

The cameras swivelled again over Evfra, probably noticing the pistol holstered on his thigh and the rifle strapped to his back. " _I still see guns,_ " said Keema, sing-song.

Evfra said nothing and folded his arms over his chest.

"Perhaps," ventured Reyes, "we can make an exception."

" _He can have _one_ gun,_" said Keema. " _Or he can give up all his guns and I'll come meet him. His choice._ "

Evfra was even less pleased. He looked to Reyes, who looked back and shrugged, a little helpless.

After far too long grumbling about it, Evfra yielded the sniper rifle, then his sidearm.

"What!?" said the small pink angara beside him.

" _Good_ ," said Keema. " _He can even keep his knife, I'm feeling generous. If he gets stabby, the Charlatan will have to have words with him. I'll be there soon._ " She disconnected.

"But he's Resistance!" said his tiny pink friend. "This is a dangerous planet!"

"If you leave the Port. You get the guns back if you do," explained Reyes. "By the way - I don't believe we've met."

"This is Ljaat do Raan," said Evfra, shouldering roughly forwards so he stood between her and Reyes' politely outstretched hand. "Student and protégée of Avela Kjar. You might know her as the person who's been receiving half your old tech deliveries. Illicit as they are, I'm sure she thanks you for your contribution."

"Compliments of the Charlatan," said Reyes.

" _That's_ Shena?" said Ljaat, piping up and peeking around Evfra's chest. "I thought he was one of ours!"

Evfra growled, "Tell everyone, why don't you." He turned to Reyes. "Ljaat here has finished with her term of Vesaal on Aya and wants to pursue further studies -"

Ljaat interrupted and squeezed her way past Evfra to speak. From Evfra's exhausted expression, this seemed to be the general state of affairs. "It's my understanding that there are at least a few locations on Kadara known even to you aliens, where some ancient angaran relics have been found," she said, chest puffed out. "I have competing theories about pre-Scourge angaran colonisation methods so I _need_ to study those sites."

Certainly, there were sites, Reyes thought. Spirit's Ledge, Nasra Peak. Kurinth's Valley had its own angaran Stonehenge. Kadara had a valuable amount of ancient angara stuff that went unnoticed. Nobody had realised yet that there might be money in it. If Ljaat kept talking so loudly in the docks, that might change. "Kadara is not exactly a university," said Reyes. "You'll need an escort."

"Keema, not _you_ ," snapped Evfra. "You're a human. And a terrible influence."

"My skills precede me," said Reyes, with a smile that Evfra returned with a scowl. He bowed to Ljaat in a way that was at once considerate and overwrought, and Evfra's scowl grew. "My dear, if you would be so kind as to wait with our dock manager -" Dalton was less than happy to be roped into this conversation once again and looked as though he had ingested a spitbug - "and submit your credentials, Keema Dohrgun will be along shortly."

"Good. I have further business here," added Evfra. Reyes raised his eyebrows. "Might as well chain the drain and get two enemies. It regards our Roekaar friends."

"Business for Shena," said Reyes.

"His last, no doubt. We'll have to find you some new codename now that Motormouth do Raan's blown your cover." Ljaat did not look abashed.

Keema arrived not long after from inside the Port. She sneered at Evfra and - Reyes was certain of it - smirked at Reyes. "Don't start," he begged.

"Not in front of him," said Keema. "But later, we'll have words. The Charlatan will want a debrief." She eyed Evfra. "Depending on what you do with him, they might not want details."

"Our illustrious Resistance Commander? He would never do anything so improper," said Reyes.

Evfra said nothing.

Or would he, wondered Reyes.

Reyes secured them the storage room where he'd packed away Eridia's tech from Eos. It was small, and dimly-lit, but it had no cameras, which meant that he couldn't be held accountable for the tech when it went missing, and that nobody - not even Keema - could know what topics he and Evfra might discuss. "There," he said. "We are quite alone. How may I be of service?"

"If there was ever a time for you to get to the point, it's now," said Evfra. "I had a six-hour long ride from Aya with someone who is physically incapable of shutting up."

"Very well, I can be business-like. But next time, please, warn me in advance. I could have arranged something better than ... this. And you need not give up your precious weapons -"

"There won't _be_ a next time," Evfra snapped. "I hate Kadara. _You_ come to _me._ "

"Oh, I will, will I," said Reyes. So arrestingly commanding. "I don't think they want my kind on Aya."

Evfra glared. "Status of the Roekaar on Kadara. _Now,_ Shena."

Reyes pulled up his more secure notes from his omni-tool. "Well, they've been quiet," he said. "As you're no doubt aware, the Pathfinder came in and removed the leaders of at least two cells. Ryder let another one go - the one who tried to make a sick woman into a biological weapon. He later... ate a mushroom that didn't agree with him, shall we say, so he is no longer a problem."

"The Charlatan's doing," guessed Evfra. "And how many other Roekaar have they simply done away with because it's easier than deprogramming from out of Akksul's cult?"

Reyes smiled, modest. "Only the extreme cases, I'm sure," he said. "Anyway, there are no active cells. The Collective has been trying to amalgamate some of their former members into their ranks, if they're not too fanatic. Keema is a wonderful leader for them. Having Kadara be under angaran rule -" or some approximation thereof - "has been extremely beneficial."

"I don't suppose this Charlatan's willing to share, are they? Are any of these Roekaar Resistance material?"

"Two," Reyes replied. "They were sent to Voeld not so very long ago. You didn't hear reports?"

Evfra grimaced. "We had two glory-seekers. From one cult into another. The Charlatan can't send me anyone else? This is getting to be a pattern that I don't like."

Pilaer might be willing, thought Reyes. Actually, Pilaer would be ideal for a few jobs. None that Evfra would like to hear about. But how to explain it without Evfra putting together why some smuggler knew so much?

In truth... Evfra should know that Reyes was the Charlatan to begin with, that it was all his orchestration. That, Reyes imagined, Evfra would _really_ not like to hear about. But it grated Reyes more that idiots like Tann and Addison knew, through the Pathfinder, and people like Evfra didn't.

Reyes kept telling himself Evfra wouldn't care, and that was likely true. But he didn't fully trust Reyes, either, and this felt like yet another a nail in that coffin.

_Is it so much to ask that he likes me,_ he wondered. Maybe it was.

"I do have more information," Reyes offered.

"How much more?" Evfra looked at Reyes' omni-tool warily.

"More than enough to make your trip here worthwhile."

Evfra groaned and put a hand to his head. "Just send it to me via datastream," he said.

That would be difficult. Half of that was direct from the Charlatan network, which Keema hadn't signed off on. Reyes could do it. But he'd need to reroute the data through a set of anonymising proxies first, and that would take time, and Evfra would wonder why it was taking so long, and there was only so much blame he could put on Kadaran infrastructure.

Which meant Reyes needed a distraction. And normally, Reyes was very creative with those. But something about being in a confined, surveillance-free location alone with the object of some of his wilder fantasies meant that only the one was coming to mind.

It wasn't so bad an idea. Get Evfra out of his system, where he couldn't seem to leave. Reyes felt certain he'd be a better Charlatan that way. Business with Eridia had been good and he'd given it up for the favour of a man who didn't even know who he was.

He set the data to uplink and anonymise and got a countdown of eight minutes. Worth a shot to ask. If Evfra punched him for being fresh, that was a distraction too.

"But Evfra, think of the paper trail," Reyes said. "And we have never really spoken before. Surely this is worthy of note, taking our time." He lowered his voice and stepped closer. "We can get to know one another."

"You're very presumptuous to think that I would want to," said Evfra.

"Don't you?" asked Reyes. He took another step into striking distance. Hopefully Evfra would go for the gut and not the face. "I thought you trusted me now."

"I'm not so sure," muttered Evfra.

Close enough. "Something like trust."

Evfra sighed. "You know, I wasn't kidding when I said I spent six hours listening to someone talk incessantly. I remember now why we called you _mouth_. I see this is Shena's last stand."

But Evfra wasn't leaving. Curious.

"And if it's not just talk?" Reyes stepped into Evfra's personal space and put a hand on his hip. Evfra... let him. Curiouser. "Besides, I don't have to talk to use my mouth," said Reyes, "I'm sure I could find some way to be quiet. The question is, can you?"

Evfra's eyes flicked to Reyes' lips, inches from his, then up to the corners of the room. He no doubt expected to find cameras, but there weren't any. "What are you suggesting," he said. "Be clearer."

"Nothing there should be cameras for," Reyes replied. "Nothing the valiant leader of the Resistance would want on his spotless record... Let me use this mouth of mine on you. Your data will take some time anyway."

Surely Evfra would stop him here. Reyes reached out to pluck imaginary dust from Evfra's pristine shoulders, an excuse to touch.

Evfra blocked his hand with his own. "Why?" he said. "Why me?"

"Not why but how. And the answer is very simple: on my knees." He took Evfra's hand in his own and brought it to his lips. It almost looked gallant.

A tense moment. Reyes felt certain this was the moment he'd grow annoyed and they'd stop this dance. But... Evfra was actually thinking about it, Evfra wasn't stopping him, and Reyes was trying not to gloat. Very careful - one had to be very careful with people like this - but then, that was half the thrill. "We have perhaps ten minutes," murmured Reyes, "any longer and someone will come find us. Until then, we are alone."

"How do you know?"

_Because I am that Charlatan you hold in such contempt and I have eyes all over Kadara Port and if I knew you were coming through it, I would have swivelled them all to track your every move, but now that I have you here, you are for my sight alone. Like Kadara herself, you're mine._

"Let's just say you can take my word for it," said Reyes. He knelt down.

"Oh, I'm sure," said Evfra, even as Reyes was busy undoing his trousers. "The word of a criminal. How reliable."

Reyes let the comment pass. He unclipped the front flap of Evfra's armour and peeled down the zipper of his light-weight trousers. Just enough room.

"You couldn't possibly know what to do," said Evfra, in soft disbelief.

Reyes leaned in past Evfra's clothing and licked a long stripe up the vertical slit along his groin. He delved the tip of his tongue inside, kissing it open-mouthed until it drew apart and he could slip deeper to taste the head of Evfra's cock, still inside him, but quickly hardening.

"Ngh, never mind, evidently you have some idea..." Evfra sat back, letting his legs fall open. "Do I _want_ to know?"

Reyes pulled off to linger at the slit again with his lips. In-between the flicks of tongue-tip, he said, "I doubt it."

Because then he'd have to confess how it was less the rumours he'd collected and more his Evfra-specific fantasies. How often he dreamt about this. Admittedly, Reyes had never actually done this on an angaran man before, but he was confident that between his conquests among angaran women and his regular ordinary Milky Way cock-sucking, he could scramble something together. If that didn't work, perhaps Evfra would reward enthusiasm, and Reyes was very enthusiastic.

"Be a _little_ patient," whispered Evfra. Reyes ignored him and opened his mouth wider until Evfra's cock ejected smoothly onto the flat of his tongue. Evfra, above him, let out a shaky gasp. He tasted - hard to say, really, not like anything Reyes had imagined, and he had imagined much. The spice heat of capsaicin with none of the flavour. Reyes tightened his lips around a first ridge then tongued his way to a second. There was another behind that one, it seemed, large enough that he could trace the tip of his tongue against, but Reyes had closed his eyes to details, preferring to map it with his mouth.

And if he kept watching any more, he'd probably come in his pants.

God, but he was already so fucking hard for this. He spread his knees trying to get a better stance and ease the ache but all that did was shift his cock against the frustrating constraint of fabric. He slipped his gloves off and put one hand on Evfra's upper thigh for stability, and the other he put between his own legs to hastily unfasten his own trousers.

Evfra backed up, his hips shifting under Reyes' touch, testing the waters of movement to see if Reyes would allow it. Gratified to find he would, he sank in deeper with a sigh until the third ridge decorating the circumference of his cock hit Reyes' lips.

Reyes hummed assent around it and opened an eye as he took him in deeper. Evfra was leaned back, balancing on a crate with one hand, his expression torn. His eyes darted to the storage room door, to Reyes, then back again, so nervous was he that they might be interrupted. Reyes really should have locked that door and put his mind at ease. It might mean he'd keep his gaze fixed on Reyes alone.

Ah, what the people would say! Not just any angara with a human sucking him off. No, no. Commander Evfra de Tershaav of the _Resistance_ , the very man who'd united them, the man who didn't trust aliens and worked with them only when he had to, the man who was chiefly separated from the Roekaar by their fanaticism, the man who held himself apart from other angara to direct their forces, _that man_ had a filthy alien smuggler frantic and on his knees for him and he was getting a blowjob in a dirty storeroom off an alley in Kadara Port.

He stroked himself harder at merely the prospect of Evfra so desperate he needed it. That was undeniably part of the allure. Not just Evfra - handsome Evfra - but untouchable, pristine Evfra. Up in the clouds on his pedestal of paragon honour, and here was the dirt crawling up to engulf him, literally.

Carefully - so much so Reyes nearly had to laugh, a shy huff of breath that danced across Evfra's beautiful blue cock and made it twitch against his tongue, its sculpted ridge hard against his lips - Evfra crawled his free hand closer to Reyes' face. He buried it in Reyes' hair almost curiously, brushing it back from his forehead with tenderness, pulling it back gently in his grasp so that Reyes' head tilted up that much more and Evfra could slide himself into his mouth better.

"Skkut, you weren't kidding," whispered Evfra. "About your _talents_." His hand slipped through Reyes' hair and down the side of his cheek until he was thumbing the corner of Reyes' lips. Tracing them fondly, feeling for himself the way his cock slipped in and out of them.

Reyes opened wider, sucked harder, and moaned without meaning to. They had to keep quiet; the fantasy was one thing but the reality was, Evfra could not possibly with his position take a human lover (and if he did it'd have to be someone equally heroic like, oh, _the Pathfinder_ ) but the way Evfra looked down at him - inquisitive, amazed - Reyes could hardly be blamed. His cheeks burned, his cock ached. He stroked himself faster, his legs spread wide, and his eyes drooped closed once again as Evfra moved in shallow thrusts to fuck his face, a little deeper with every thrust, until there was no space in Reyes' mouth _but_ for Evfra. His breaths sped up. What a shame they had to be quiet.

Evfra stilled and released a short gasp that he quickly bit back. A moan died in his throat as he came down Reyes'. Reyes hardly noticed as he swallowed, too busy stroking himself off, fucking his own fist until he came hard, Evfra's cock still languid in his mouth, stretching his lips wide.

He licked Evfra clean, panting, paying slightly greater attention to the pattern of ridges on it this time, relishing in details to try and remember them for later, then sat back on his heels and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. Evfra had slipped from his lips as he'd moved; he put a thumb back against them now, sucking it slowly inside, to recapture the trail Evfra's touch had made and the imprint of his cock. "You enjoyed that," murmured Evfra.

God, yes. "So did you," said Reyes, defensive.

Evfra, somewhat dazed, shook his head in astonishment. "Well, we'll never speak of this again," he said.

"Of course not," he said. "But, I am gratified to know you trust me at long last."

"I never said that," said Evfra. He tucked himself back away and did up the trousers, and in seconds was his old unruffled mysterious self again. A marvelous actor, that Evfra.

"You put a very delicate piece of anatomy where I keep my teeth," pointed out Reyes. "That was a risk."

"Somehow I don't think it was," said Evfra, as he watched Reyes wipe his come off his hands with a tissue and tuck himself back in.

"Well," he decided, pocketing the tissue and getting to his feet. "I feel we understand each other a bit better now."

"That, I might actually agree with," said Evfra.

And now perhaps Reyes could finally get Evfra out of his mind. The Charlatan couldn't be thinking of someone the way Reyes thought of Evfra, the Charlatan had to isolate, keep apart, rule from the shadows. Charlatans didn't take lovers or pine, or they'd never get anything done. Reyes could work for the Resistance all he liked, but the Charlatan had to remain objective.

"Oh, look," said Reyes, "your data is ready." He flicked his fingers to command his omni-tool to send it to Evfra's angaran equivalent.

A transaction completed. They had nothing more to do here, and Reyes was well aware. Opening the door to the brightness of Kadara Port felt disappointing, anyway.

* * *

Keema and Ljaat caught up with them on the other side of the dock doors, in the port city itself. "Ah, excellent," said Reyes, "my two favourite ladies."

"Are you always like this?" asked Ljaat.

"When he wants something," said Keema. "I'm surprised he's alive after a few minutes alone with our Resistance leader."

Evfra glowered. "You're all set up, so I'm leaving."

"Before you go," said Reyes. "I have a crate of devices from Eos - most of it is likely Remnant, but I have the sneaking suspicion some is angaran. Ljaat, you said you were a student of Avela's?"

"One of her best," said Ljaat brightly.

"Then perhaps you could take a look through the crate first, to see whether any of it would be more pertinent to your research, or Avela's. Evfra can deliver it to Aya, save me a trip."

"I'm not a courier," said Evfra.

"I'm not making the trip to Aya for a handful of trinkets," said Reyes. He added, a little pointedly, "Since it would be _just_ for a handful of trinkets." Evfra carefully said nothing.

"That's a good point, sometimes these ancient devices look more Remnant, and are easily confused for it," said Ljaat. "I don't blame your contact for such an accident."

"Yes," murmured Reyes, "accident." Evfra, beside him, glared.

Ljaat only found two things she recognised as more angaran than Remnant. One was a ship's engine component, and one was a personal data storage device belonging to an Irhon Yvuj. According to Ljaat, that was the most fascinating thing she'd laid eyes on in days (and she'd travelled here with Evfra, so that was saying something) and she went on and on ad nauseum about ancient angaran archivers like Irhon, or Dovfraaj Reesia, or Tihnof de Kellra or any of the fourteen other people whose names she spoke of with such reverence they might well have been gods and their collected theses, which might just possibly be on that data storage device.

Reyes didn't have the heart to tell her that Eridia had probably supplied so much power trying to turn the device on that she'd completely flashed the drive. Let the kid dream.

And Evfra had been right, Ljaat didn't stop talking until you stopped her. It took a half hour to calm her down long enough to let go of the objects to load them into Evfra's shuttle for safekeeping in the Repository of History. But this let Reyes ruminate over possibilities. Eridia wouldn't do any more business with Reyes. Perhaps she'd do it with a bright young angaran scientist. Ljaat could get easier access to whatever Eridia had squirreled away and identify the angaran tech that Eridia had taken. Eridia would have to defend herself against another scientist, instead of Reyes or some equally ignorant smuggler. Keema would be all too delighted to slowly poach her for the Collective, right from under Evfra's nose.

Even Evfra couldn't be too mad, because Reyes had slipped him Pilaer's file in the datastream, and Evfra would not be able to resist tapping him for future operations. Which was exactly what Reyes wanted him to do.

So really, it all worked out! Reyes was a mastermind. He congratulated himself later in his small apartment in Kadara Port by going over the more prurient data he'd collected with his omni-tool, where he noticed something.

Evfra sighed so prettily when he came, but he'd left barely a twitch outside of baseline readings in the bioelectrics.


	2. Chapter 2

Trade flowed more smoothly than it once had out of Kadara, so it took only three weeks' time before Reyes' hacked intel showed him that the Initiative was scheduling a shipment to Aya, and he could finally seize upon an opportunity.

Captain Jelaks had won the internal Collective contract for the run, so they took his shuttle. Jelaks was a reliable pilot, salarian, and generally silent. Pilaer, whom Keema had hired, was equally silent. He'd filed in beside Reyes, sat on the bench the farthest possible distance away from either of them, and didn't say a word. Reyes didn't press the point. They'd be all three together for the duration of the trip from Kadara in the Govorkam system to Aya in Onaon. Best not to bait the bear.

Pilaer was seven feet of distempered angara, a crack shot, steadfast and valiant, and former Roekaar. He was a beautiful shade of lavender speckled with gold, and Reyes thought it simply unfair to look so pretty while being so intimidating. Being the muscle was half the reason they were bringing him on this trip. The other half - well, that was for the Charlatan's eyes only.

They landed not far from the Ditaeon outpost. "This way," said Reyes. Jelaks followed. Pilaer did too, a little hunched over from his usual height, his gaze darting around nervously. But Reyes' bioelectric scanner didn't read the blend of anxiety and resent that he'd expected, which meant Pilaer was slowly adjusting out of his typical discomfort around aliens.

It might have helped that there were other angara visible around the outpost. The Collective provided support, and the Collective happily staffed angara. Indeed, the Charlatan had made it very clear that anybody who had a problem with that wasn't welcome in the Collective. Was it really so much the Charlatan's fault that not being welcome in the Collective didn't make living on Kadara safe?

"We'll be quick," added Reyes. "You don't have to say anything, just stand there and be menacing."

Pilaer glared at him.

"See?" said Reyes. "You're a natural."

They turned and entered a prefab building that Reyes had come to recognise as Ditaeon's infirmary. Inside was someone with whom Reyes was very familiar.

"You," growled Dr Ryota Nakamoto. "What are you doing here? I have a shipment for a -" he checked his omni-tool. "Nessa Devries," he said at last. "Initiative pilot. That's not you."

"We were cheaper," said Reyes.

"So I'll _pay extra_ ," said Nakamoto, grinding it through his teeth.

"Too late!" replied Reyes. "Your business was reassigned." Forcibly.

"Then I'll find someone else."

Reyes shook his head and dropped the smile. He took a step forward. "No, my friend. This is a protected Collective trade route, now. And that is final."

Nakamoto was unmoved. "Let me make this perfectly clear, _my friend_ , I don't work with Collective, or Outcast, or any gang, _anymore,_ because as far as I'm concerned, you're all the same. Now, you protect this outpost, I get that, but I specifically requested -"

"Request denied," said Jelaks. He took out his sidearm - a nasty-looking shotgun - and cocked it. Not aiming, not yet. "Collective trade, now."

"I don't work for you," said Nakamoto. "I'm on the straight, I don't - I don't do things like this. I'm not some gang member, I don't _run with_ people."

"Why still be here on Kadara, then?" asked Jelaks. "Can go back to Nexus."

"People need me!"

"You're right!" chimed in Reyes. "They do. The Charlatan needs you."

Nakamoto glared. "Yeah, well, I don't need them."

"You didn't seem to think so when you were taking their supplies and their credits. Stolen, might I add, from the Initiative. Which - you are not a stupid man - you knew."

Now Nakamoto bristled. "That was different," he said tightly.

"Mm, of course it was," replied Reyes. "Tell me, do you think the Initiative will see it that way?"

"You wouldn't."

Reyes' smile grew. Pilaer took a step forward now too, and crossed his arms. He was a giant like this, towering over Nakamoto.

"Collective trade, now," said Jelaks, settling his shotgun on top of the crates of supplies. "Do not make me repeat myself a third time."

* * *

They began loading the crates. Nakamoto, showing some wise self-preservation for once, stayed out of the way.

This, reflected Reyes, as he and Pilaer shouldered a massive crate into Jelaks' _Omen_ , was kind of what he'd meant when he'd told Ryder that trade with the outpost would bring in money. It wasn't a tax. Not technically. Just that the only delivery service around was his and his affiliates.

"I didn't realise the Charlatan was such an entrepreneur," muttered Pilaer softly, mostly to himself.  
  
"Ah, trade routes get us connections and money," said Reyes. "Connections and money get us influence. And influence - imagine what influence will get us."

"Power?" guessed Pilaer. "Weapons, food, water? Planets, people?"

"Control," replied Reyes. He levered the crate into the vehicle and Pilaer shouldered it the rest of the way in.

"You know... you sound a lot like Akksul when you say skkut like that," said Pilaer.

Reyes shrugged. "Sorry, but it's the truth."

"I didn't mean it as an insult. Just that... there's something to be said for clambering for the top. It takes a certain type to do it." He narrowed his eyes. "And I hope this Charlatan's up to the task."

"Keema certainly thinks so."

Pilaer sighed. "Keema told me she's not the Charlatan, and she wasn't lying, I could tell. But I don't know. It's an angara at least. Got to be. This kind of opportunism... it's pure Kadaran angara."

Reyes grinned. "I'm sure the Charlatan would take that as a compliment."

"That one, I _did_ mean as an insult," said Pilaer darkly.

Really, Pilaer was an asset. Cleverer than he let on. And Evfra thought so, too, which would be both their ticket into Aya and a potential financial risk. (Fuck his face, that was one thing; swipe his crew, another entirely.)

Their last stop before transit was the other side of the mountain, which Keema had called Hjerfi Ledge, to the Tussa cave system. At the mouth of the caves, three boxes awaited them. Stasis pod-shaped boxes.

"I thought Keema said we were getting people," snarled Pilaer. " _Alive_ people!"

"Oh, they're very much alive," said Reyes, scanning quickly. "They're not even _in_ stasis, just knocked out for the duration of the trip. Perfectly safe. See for yourself."

Pilaer took a quick scan with his own gauntlet-mounted device, an angaran make omni-tool of sorts. "Oh," he said. He looked put out.

"When Keema told you we had three former Roekaar, all Kadaran, who were interested in joining the Resistance, and needed to be extracted from their cell, so that the cell didn't know they'd defected, so that later we can infiltrate... what did you think?"

"I was hoping ..." Pilaer began. He screwed up his face in a scowl. "Never mind."

To have someone to talk to on the way over, no doubt. But Reyes wasn't keen on having _four_ former Roekaar in one shuttle. Of course, he couldn't say that without sounding distrustful.

"Consider it this way, it's best if you don't know who they are," lied Reyes. "Plausible deniability."

"That," said Jelaks, "and where we're going, the Scourge is thick. Need silence. Omen weaves in better when not so many angara on board. Or so it seems. Better shielding, in stasis pods."

Pilaer took that as an answer, and grumped his way inside the shuttle.

* * *

From Govorkam to Onaon was a five-hour ride. Pilaer amused himself with his device, and Reyes amused himself with hacking into Pilaer's device undetected.

But Pilaer could not tolerate a five hour ride in total silence - unlike Jelaks - and he relented, deigning eventually to speak to the aliens. "I'm surprised any angara from Kadara are permitted to land on Aya," said Pilaer. "Much less _go in_. I guess that's one advantage to these three being out for the trip; this way they _have_ to let me into the city to escort."

Not quite true; Evfra had invited him, on Reyes' illicit information. "I have never been inside Aya's city, you will have to tell me what it's like," said Reyes instead. "But I imagine that things have changed somewhat. Maybe they are willing to relent."

"Aya's for angara," snapped Pilaer. Then he backed down. "Sorry."

"It is," admitted Reyes, taking no offence. "I don't deny it."

"Akksul's words run deep," Pilaer muttered. "Sometimes I think I still hear them."

Time to spin the conversation. "I do wonder why you are so defensive of it when as far as I can tell, Aya abandoned native Kadarans."

"The Moshae did, not Evfra, near as I can tell," said Pilaer. "At least, that's what Keema said."

"And you believe what Keema said?"

"I'm still pretty sure she's the Charlatan. So - yes."

Reyes grinned, and said nothing.

After the Roekaar leader had fallen, factions all over the cluster had splintered. Some had new leaders and resumed operations, but most of the people had disbanded and were wandering, somewhat aimlessly, trying to find jobs.

The Resistance was always looking for volunteers - as was the Collective. So one would think that it could indeed be so straightforward: the Resistance could mine Havarl for former Roekaar who had become more malleable in their beliefs; the Collective could mine Kadara for the same. Certainly the Moshae would have preferred it that way - a clear division between Aya and Kadara, since Kadara, she maintained, had abandoned their cause. Incidentally, Keema - who saw herself as something of a Kadaran counterpoint to the Moshae (even though Keema was sixty-six if a day and the Moshae was twice as old and probably four times as wise) - agreed, and was very happy to keep the divisions between Kadara and Aya unfuzzied.

Evfra, on the other hand. Evfra was another story. _Evfra_ would like to see all angara have a part to play in the Resistance - and after all, uniting angara _was_ his business, it was his direct experience. That meant people from Havarl, people from Voeld, people from Aya... and people from Kadara, if he could get them.

The Charlatan, meanwhile, was looking - very quietly, of course! - into expanding some operations on Havarl, and having Kadaran angara in the Resistance for future use, to exploit both for potential intel. Evfra had his ways of pulling strings with the governor of Aya - indeed, Evfra had a _lot_ of sway and a lot of intel. It would be very interesting to see what he had. Besotted as Reyes was, he wasn't so far gone as to think that Evfra would actually _give_ it to him if he asked.

This left the Collective and the Resistance somewhat in stand-off competition. It was a thin tightrope that Reyes had to walk: position some angara - like Pilaer - cushy-close with Evfra and the Resistance, without letting Evfra poach.

And it was tricky. Most angara in the Collective weren't as patriotic about Kadara as Keema was, most former Roekaar even less so, and Aya offered the safety and basic comfort that Kadara couldn't. 

Sometimes you had to lean on people to stay in the Collective. Sometimes you had to play dirty.

* * *

Only Pilaer had Evfra's invitation to enter Aya, but between the Initiative medical gear from Nakamoto and the three stasis pods of sleeping Roekaar, they did permit him to take Jelaks for offloading and delivery. This left Reyes to remain with the shuttle in the Docks. Suited him fine. Pilaer's data device was the only thing that needed to get past Aya's gates. The moment it did, it would activate the worm Lynx wrote which Reyes had planted in Pilaer's device, which would infiltrate the Aya network. Keema wasn't looking for anything big. Just one file, one little database. They'd hardly even miss it.

Reyes had his own task. From the tracking signal, the container of goods from Eos that Reyes had asked Evfra to transport was still sitting in the Repository of History. It looked like no one had found Eridia's tag, so Reyes could port to it, use it as a proxy to install Crux's backdoor subroutine to Aya's mainframe. The Charlatan couldn't trust Aya to be consistently forthcoming with information, or wait for information to come through the Nexus first. If Aya would even share such sensitive information with the Nexus in the first place!. No, better to cut out the middleman.

Like the container, it would stay unnoticed, perfectly innocent, until activated. And depending how the Collective's expansion into Havarl went, they might never even need it.

All he had to do was find a nice, quiet spot in the Docks where no one was looking, and hack away. One way or another, he'd get what he wanted -

Or so Reyes thought.

"What are you doing here?"

_Evfra._

Reyes quickly aborted his hacking process, minimised it from his omni-tool's display, and looked up. He smiled to mask the expression of _caught red-handed._ "Commander," he said. "We have to stop meeting like this. People will talk!"

"You're talking right now. You should stop that."

"I'm simply waiting for a friend," said Reyes, acting as though he actually had friends on Aya. "Alas, he had to leave me outside the city."

What was Evfra doing here? He was supposed to be meeting Pilaer!

"We don't even let Kadaran angara here," replied Evfra. "Just because we made an exception today, you think we'd make an exception for you?"

"A man can hope," said Reyes, batting his eyelashes. "Are you here to keep a _very_ close watch on me?" Maybe if he flirted extra hard, he'd piss Evfra off and get the requisite five minutes alone to finish his hack in peace.

"Something like that," said Evfra flatly. He looked beyond Reyes, at the shuttle. "The salarian is here to make the drop-off - I note this isn't your shuttle. Pilaer is here with those Roekaar -"

"Yes, and it astonishes me you're not handling that yourself."

"I've got others to vet your cast-offs. I came to find out why you're here. Something tells me _you're_ the real threat, Reyes."

Evfra knew. Somehow, he knew, or suspected. Reyes turned on the charm even harder and gleamed. "Oh, I _love_ it when you say my name," he gushed in a bedroom voice. "Makes me weak at the knees. Catch me if I swoon, won't you?"

"Don't make this weird. You're why I have to be here and not with my new Resistance agent."

"Pilaer? Resistance?" He feigned wide-eyed surprise. "I thought he was Collective."

"It's possible to be both, as you well know," said Evfra with some caution, gauging Reyes' reaction.

Reyes was determined to give him nothing. "Well, can't a fellow drop by a planet that is barred to him to see his favourite Resistance leader?"

Evfra glared. "My patience wears thin. This game of yours is 'fun', for a given definition of fun, but do you or don't you have information for me?"

Reyes blinked. This time, Evfra had surprised him.

"Because I have to assume _that's_ why you're here," said Evfra. "It's either that or some other nefarious purpose." He looked pointedly at Reyes' omni-tool. "And you wouldn't dare do anything like that on Aya, would you?"

"Why, Evfra," murmured Reyes. "I'm impressed, this is almost extortion."

"Only if you didn't come to share," said Evfra.

"Inside, then." Reyes gestured to the shuttle. Hopefully Jelaks wouldn't mind, or return soon.

They filed in, and he closed the door and darkened the windows. Evfra took a seat on the bench; Reyes on the larger co-pilot's chair.

Minor setback, he thought. He would have to give Evfra something to throw off suspicion. Collective cells on Havarl would work. 

Collective activity on Havarl was still in very early stages. It wasn't information anyone else should have, but... Evfra would find a use for it. And it'd be good not to trip over each other's toes, anyway. And ... and he trusted Evfra. For a given definition of trust. He trusted him with the lives of Collective members, if not the true identity of the Charlatan.

At any rate, the information wasn't likely to be compromised.

He wondered, as he flicked through the files, whether he might have enough time to activate the upload from Eridia's tag inside the container in the Repository of History. "Just a little moment, here," he said, preparing to stall.

"Let me guess," said Evfra. "Your information takes about that long to process so that you can send me the datastream. Let's make things more interesting." He made a few commands on his own omni-tool-like device and -

Reyes lost the connection with the container. And any connection with anything outside the shuttle. Dead in the water.

Hm. Interesting.

"Well, now you've my full attention," said Reyes.

"As I should," Evfra replied.

"If I didn't know better, I'd think you don't trust me."

"I don't," said Evfra. He laid something on the seat next to him - an active Resistance bug, blinking red, jamming transmissions. "I don't believe for one second you came here just to drop things off, I think you came to pick something up."

Damn him!

Time to distract. "Do _you_ count as something?" Reyes purred.

"What are you _doing?_ " Evfra snapped.

"At the moment, not much of anything." Reyes pointedly looked at Evfra's groin, eyeing the swell of it languidly. Subtle he wasn't. "Unless you've got other ideas."

"Not this time."

Reyes lifted an eyebrow. "Oh? You seemed to like it."

"Maybe I don't like owing people things," Evfra shot back. Didn't feel like the whole truth, but let him have his secrets; Reyes certainly did. "And something about your behaviour tells me you'd hold it over my head as leverage somehow."

"Evfra," said Reyes, "you wound me, I would never. But if it keeps you with me a while longer, I won't protest."

Evfra put his head in his hands. "Why are you _like this_ ," he groaned. "Why is it so hard to get a straight answer from you? You _know_ angara value honesty. Be honest!"

Reyes could _feel_ the pull on his heartstrings. He should have excised all thoughts of Evfra from his mind _weeks_ ago. This was definitely a tactic to get Reyes to spill.

It worked.

If Evfra had been anyone else, it wouldn't've worked! But there was a plea in Evfra's voice that Reyes heard, and he was so weak to it. He was only flesh, after all.

"Look," he said, relenting. "If anyone were picking anything up, it'd be someone who was actually allowed inside the city." And that was true. Pilaer was now the only one whose mission would work, and he didn't even know it. No, today was as good as scrubbed. Might as well enjoy and get _something_ out of it. He could only lie so much; it wasn't an option to get Evfra so angry that he cut off contact. Reyes resolved the next five hours on the trip back to cooking up alternate plans and how to break the news about their subroutine to Keema.

"But," he added, "as long as we're being honest, I must admit ..." That he couldn't stop thinking about last time? That he'd picked every facet of that interaction over and over in his head because it was not what he thought Evfra would ever do? That if he concentrated, he could feel Evfra's shy, grazing touch on his lips? "I'm still surprised you let me suck you off."

Evfra, to his credit, didn't even blush, but he did look away.

"You don't let anyone near you," Reyes continued, "I don't know why I'm the exception."

He could always speculate. Fantasise, hope. It didn't mean anything; it was about as likely as accidentally discovering a brand new golden world. Reyes shut himself up there before he got any more revealing.

"You're not," said Evfra. He rolled his eyes. "You're nothing _special_ , let's be clear about that. You've got a reputation, alright, but you're not _all_ talk about it. You do know how to keep a secret." Oh, if Evfra only knew. "Would you believe me if I said you were the first to ask and I simply called your bluff?"

No. "I can't believe a man like you goes around and no one has asked you for this," said Reyes.

"You said it, not me."

"What?"

"A man like me," said Evfra. "So it works out. We rarely see each other and it won't get awkward. Unnecessary. It'd be convenient."

Maybe that was it. Evfra couldn't do this with someone he liked, he had to lead them but also send them to die on occasion so that nixed any one of his more handsome, more angaran underlings. He had to present a certain image, but only for angara. Reyes simply fell neatly outside the boundary.

Nothing more.

"Convenient for you to keep your distance, you mean, as you are so very good at doing," supplied Reyes. "And you never come to Kadara, because you hate it, so I suppose you never have to worry about me _making it weird_."

Evfra pursed his lips. Had he noticed Reyes' slightly embittered tone?

That also didn't feel like the whole truth. What was Evfra keeping back, and why? Just the thought of a secret had Reyes' interest piqued. That said, a lot about Evfra had his interest piqued, among other things. He'd just have to say go and Reyes would be ready for him.

Was... was that what he was saying now? Was that what this was really about? The Resistance bug to jam signals going out -

Or monitoring in.

Oh, Evfra... Clever, wicked Evfra.

"Data's ready," said Reyes. "Of course, I'll need to transmit it directly to your device, with that bug of yours active."

"How long will that take?"

"A few minutes. Maybe fifteen."

"I don't know about you," growled Evfra, "but that's enough time for me."

Reyes started the transfer and slipped from his seat to his knees but Evfra stopped him with a hand held up. "Not like that," he said. "I told you, I don't want to owe a man like you any favours."

It would hardly be owing. Reyes _liked_ it too much. He sat back in the co-pilot chair. "How, then?"

Evfra moved quickly in the small shuttle, swinging a leg over to straddle Reyes against his seat. From this position Evfra's legs were long enough that he could fold them relatively naturally on either side of Reyes. He was heavy on Reyes' thighs - Reyes kind of liked it like that. And he was close. Touching-distance close.

This time, Reyes took his time. He tugged off his gloves finger by finger, Evfra watching him do it with greedy eyes. Then he unclipped the belted fastening around Evfra's armour at the waist to loosen the fly-like part of the armour that covered the groin and flipped that back to expose him. (Defter this time around. He was becoming more acquainted with it.) Someday he'd ask whether angara wore underwear; Evfra evidently didn't.

The cool sharp scent of ozone hit Reyes sharp in the memory - Evfra smelled like he'd tasted in the storage room. He ran a thumb tenderly along the slit in the bulge and Evfra's cock slipped out, hard for him already. Evfra shuddered forward, a sigh escaping him.

 _God_ , but Reyes liked this, he liked this _so much_. He took Evfra in hand. He was certainly proportionate - his cock was such a _nice_ weight in Reyes' hand, and he nearly could not reach the fingertips to his thumb encircling it. The ridges made it even harder to stroke him. But the head of it was already so wet it had left some on the slit, some on the shaft. Slick enough to make it all work, anyway. Reyes tightened his hold and twisted his wrist as he moved.

"Ah," gasped Evfra. He closed his eyes, leaning forward as his hips thrust into Reyes' grasp, and collapsed by his side, balancing on the headrest of the seat with his forehead, above Reyes. This was the closest they'd ever been, Evfra's face inches from his own. Reyes couldn't tear his eyes away. "Yes, like that, _like that._ "

Reyes felt spellbound. Blue everywhere he could see. Evfra's rofjinn at his throat, brushing the skin with Evfra's movements. The soft lobes of Evfra's mantle at his lips. Reyes would barely have to tilt his head to kiss him, lick him there. He drifted closer, too mesmerised for logic.

But Evfra backed up before he could reach him and ripped one of his gloves off. He shoved it between their legs and unclipped Reyes' belt, then fumbled for his fly.

"You don't have to," whispered Reyes. He adjusted for him anyway, spreading his thighs beneath Evfra's, secretly hoping it would ease the ache, secretly hoping he could find some way to thrust up against Evfra like that. That would be enough.

"Shut up," grunted Evfra. "Stop talking."

"Because you don't want to hear an alien voice?"

"Because you _talk too much,_ " Evfra replied. From this awkward angle he had to push down the fly on Reyes' trousers to open them, but he was very determined, much as Reyes' grip made that difficult for him. A moment's work won him the success he clearly craved and with an astonished expression of bewildered triumph he slipped his hand inside to wrap it around Reyes' cock. Reyes gasped - Evfra's _bare touch_ , his hand, on him ... warm, strong. The intimate prickle of bioelectricity. The danger of it. Evfra's eyes on his face, watching as he discovered where to touch, how to stroke.

"Then shut me up," moaned Reyes.

 _Kiss me,_ he clearly meant, but didn't say; so Evfra smirked, and didn't.

Movement was tricky; not much purchase. But they managed to eke out a rhythm all the same, until Evfra, in his abandon, shifted closer, his thighs falling open farther. Even for angara that was no small feat. "Fuck me," he said.

"What," breathed Reyes.

"With your fingers," Evfra said, his voice strained but commanding all the same. "Fuck me."

Evfra filed backwards enough that Reyes could get his hand wormed inside Evfra's trousers, groping and feeling his way backwards, squeezed between - god, only to think it was arousing - his _ass_. He assumed this was similar enough; Evfra didn't contradict him. Not that he seemed to have the presence of mind for it anyway. His cock was nicely slick now, and Reyes wasn't entirely sure where that was coming from - his cockhead? inside? who knew. He wasn't sure it was all Evfra either.

But there was a hole, and Reyes' fingers were slippery enough to put the tips of two inside it. Evfra sank back down on them, pushing in, and gasped, breathy and desperate. It sounded like fucking music to Reyes' ears - he was certain he'd never wanted to fuck someone _this_ badly. There was a nodule inside, deep, but towards the front. And, come to think of it, it was probably where the ridges of an angaran cock could fit perfectly - the ones Reyes had tongued last time they'd fooled around. His fingertips were doing a decent enough job if Evfra's reactions were any judge.

Evfra grabbed his own cock and pulled them together, shifting forward to bring them in contact. The friction was so frustratingly minimal, but Evfra was nothing if not determined to work them together, and Reyes was close just from the potential - excise _nothing,_ this would be fuelling his fantasies for the rest of his life. His other hand slipped to Reyes' shoulder, grabbing it in an eager grip. For stability, probably, though his legs were strong enough to hold him. And it was probably for stability too that he moved closer until his face, his beautiful face, and that sinful mouth of his had drawn nearer Reyes'.

An inch apart. Less. Panting and open and lustful. Evfra's eyes _burned_. I could kiss him, thought Reyes, I'd die to. Angara kissed, didn't they? Lips like that, they surely must. He craned his face up until he could feel the heat of Evfra's breath...

And Evfra, lost in his own lust, chose that moment to angle away.

Reyes had never more badly wanted to be a little less his usual persona. A growing part of him longed to chase Evfra down. Pin him to a bed by the wrists, fuck him deep, hope that whatever nodule he was fingering now was something he could hit with his cock, grab him by the thighs and ride him to ecstasy, hold him by the lobes of his mantle so he could kiss him through every last dying second of it, until his head spun with the breathlessness of it all.

But Reyes had become too used to being a man who kept his distance, like he did with everybody he didn't trust, like Evfra told him he'd be doing too. So Evfra's plush, gasping mouth drifted away and Reyes, in heartsick dismay... let it.

Then Evfra twisted his grip and his thumb brushed tenderly over the head of Reyes' cock in a way that called sharp attention to the way his hair stood on end, the imminent buildup of static charge, and it was Reyes who was spinning for it. "A-ah, Evfra," he sighed. There was love in the shattered, broken way he said Evfra's name and he hoped Evfra didn't notice. He hoped he _did_ notice. Or both. He looped his free hand around Evfra's back to hold him. If he squinted and deluded himself, he could pretend it was an embrace.

"That's right," groaned Evfra, gripping them tighter, his hand shaking, "come on." He jerked closer to command it in Reyes' ear. "Give it to me, _come_ on."

Reyes arched up with a strained moan as he came into Evfra's hand, his own hands erratic. He couldn't help it, he swayed into Evfra as their cheeks brushed together. Too intimate, and yet he desperately wished to stay like that - deep, connected. Maybe Evfra wouldn't notice. And he wasn't noticing, because he was shifting back to ride Reyes' fingers better to his own climax, messy and stifled and all over Reyes' lap.

Well, Evfra had definitely won this round, he thought. It wasn't a _damn competition_ , he also thought.

Wasn't it, though?

Evfra hadn't yet moved away. He pulled back slightly, enough that he'd be able to feel the way Reyes had slung an arm around him, resting at the small of his back. Reyes looked up. Evfra seemed more pensive than usual as he relaxed, his gaze studious and calculating. It flickered over Reyes' face, from his eyes to his mouth to his hair - probably it had struck him quite suddenly in post-orgasmic bliss or shame: what _was_ he doing with an alien.

He leaned down, ducking his head a fraction. Then a fraction more, and Reyes, magnetised, held his breath and lifted his chin...

A notification sang out from Evfra's angaran scanner. "Ah," said Evfra, realising. "That'll be your data." He tore his gaze away to fiddle with it.

"You're welcome," said Reyes.

Just do it, Reyes thought, just grab his pretty face and kiss him. He looked up. The angle would be so awkward - he could crane his neck and Evfra without leaning down would still be inches away, but a man could dream and god, but did he dream.

How symbolically apt. Evfra above him, uplifted. Reyes yearning to reach such a height and inevitably failing, sinking back down into sickly familiar underworld depths every time he tried to dig himself out of a mess partially of his own making, partially because he'd never learned any other way. He'd been a fool to think he could leave all his ways behind and start fresh in Andromeda. But a man could dream.

"Well, I suppose that concludes our business," said Evfra.

For once, Reyes could find no good words. He smiled, somewhat cynically, more to himself.

Cleaning up was difficult. There were no stains by the time he'd finished, but it looked still somewhat damp. He hoped no one would notice - Jelaks certainly wouldn't, but Pilaer might. Keema would, if she were here, but she was more observant than most as a rule.

Jelaks and Pilaer returned a handful of minutes later. (Pilaer was very surprised to meet Evfra at the shuttle; too surprised and a little starstruck. So much so that he didn't notice anything different about Reyes, or question much why Evfra was here and an officer had been appointed to meet him in Resistance HQ.) Only then did Evfra deactivate the bug. "So you don't walk away with anything you shouldn't have, pirate," he told Reyes. It almost sounded affectionate.

"Only the sweetest of memories," shot back Reyes.

* * *

En route home, and all the way up to the debriefing, Pilaer could not for a moment stop talking about his time in Resistance HQ. It was clear he liked it, and was looking forward to meeting with more Resistance agents on Havarl - none of whom, Reyes noted, were cross-listed Collective.

"Too bad," said Keema, during the debriefing. "How are you going to lead a Resistance cell when you hacked into Aya's central intelligence network?"

This had Pilaer silent for the first time in hours. Dumbstruck, he turned to Reyes, who wouldn't meet his eyes.

Keema brought up her angaran scanning tool and made a few quick keystrokes to pull up the contents of Pilaer's. There, in his home directory, was the database Keema had requested, downloaded with Pilaer's certifications, as per Lynx's clever worm that Reyes had installed on the way over in Jelaks' shuttle. Truly, a team effort!

"I don't understand," said Pilaer softly. "What's that doing there?"

"You smuggled three agents past Aya's gates. I guess it's only right you take a cut," said Keema. "That's what you'll say when they question what you've done, _Collective_. And don't you forget it."

Pilaer looked from Reyes to Keema and back again. "You were my handler," he said, as it dawned on him. "I thought - I thought I was the muscle, to make sure you did your job with the meds from that Initiative of yours, to make sure they went to the right place and you didn't try and overcharge the Infirmary on Aya, but all along, you used me. You used the fact that - that they trusted me."

"I _hoped_ they'd trust you. It wasn't certain," admitted Reyes.

"It's done," said Keema curtly. "The Charlatan will be very happy about this information."

"What is it that they need to exploit people so badly?" said Pilaer.

"Are you sure you want to know?" asked Reyes. "Plausible deniability -"

"Oh, take your skkutting plausible deniability and shove it up your ass, vesagara," snarled Pilaer.

Keema cleared her throat. "There's no need for that," she said. "You, my dear, brought the Charlatan a current copy of the Vesaal."

Pilaer gaped. "Wh-what, what would they need that for?"

"The long term goal," said Keema, "is to gain leverage for the angara on Kadara. More angara, more stable angaran culture - independent of Aya. Of course, the Charlatan seeks to forge closer diplomatic relations with Aya, but when Aya traditionally does not make overtures, the Charlatan must force her hand. This gives us comings and goings of people on Aya. It means we can start to put specific people there, if we make offers to others to give up their term of Vesaal. _Control_ , Pilaer - it's all about control."

Pilaer was natively Kadaran, but his Roekaar background meant that he'd forged relationships with people who weren't. The hope was that he held little love for Aya; the reality was evidently different. It had been cruel to dash his hopes like this. But, sometimes you had to play a little dirty and lean on people to stay in the Collective. Pilaer would learn. In time, he'd even make his own manipulations.

"They told me you'd do this," said Pilaer. He shook his head, disgusted, and his eyes began to brim. "They told me you were using me. I didn't want to believe it."

He turned and left the room.

Keema and Reyes exchanged a glance. "Do you want to go after him?" Reyes asked. "He'd listen to you."

"Let him stew," said Keema. She narrowed her eyes. "That Evfra," she murmured, drumming her fingers on the table. "Offering him the lead on his own cell. He's smarter than he lets on."

She wasn't kidding. There wasn't much data his omni-tool could capture from Aya with that bug of Evfra's active, but the bioelectric app could record within the shuttle. Nothing from Evfra's bioelectrics. The man should play poker. Reyes had absolutely no way to read his bluffs.

"I played right into his hands," said Reyes. Dissatisfied with the tithe the Charlatan was already giving him, Evfra evidently intended to actively poach from _his_ Collective. "He came to see me," he explained. "He wanted to know what I was doing there. He had to know that Pilaer was a potential data breach but he assumed - correctly - I was the bigger potential data breach. So he went directly to me, and expected others in the Resistance to deal with Pilaer. Which, I take it, they did, precisely as intended."

"And now Evfra has ensured that, between Pilaer's time in Resistance HQ, and his treatment here at our hands, he's that much more likely to leave the Collective for the Resistance at the first opportunity," replied Keema.

"I'm almost impressed," said Reyes, his eyes sparkling.

"Mm," said Keema, sounding distinctly less than impressed. "Do you think he knows what Pilaer's device stole?"

"He couldn't have," said Reyes. Lynx was a better hacker than Reyes was, and Evfra had been too ... distracted.

"Then the Vesaal records won't be updated. That's comings and goings on Aya, that's still a win."

Reyes tilted his head, half-agreeing.

"There are other Pilaers," said Keema. "We can let Evfra have _one_."

"He gets _only_ one," said Reyes.

"You _were_ trying to infiltrate their network. Shame it didn't work."

"He's being greedy! We already gave him three soldiers!"

"Soldiers we weren't going to make use of." Keema thought a moment. "There's one thing I've been wondering about, Reyes," she said. "How exactly did Evfra get by you?"

Reyes had expected such a question, and he still didn't have a wholly satisfying answer.

_With his wiles, he thought, with his weight straddling my lap and his cock in my hand, with my fingers in his ass. With thwarted kisses. With the kind of weakness the Charlatan shouldn't have._

"A momentary lapse in judgement. It won't happen again," said Reyes. "Of that, I can assure you."


End file.
